The nature of judgment in the Hereafter
- Updated On Saturday, 21 June 2014
- Written by Ayatullah Musavi Lari
- Editor Kawther Rahmani
- Supervisor Sayyed Roohullah Musavi
- Published on Wednesday, 07 March 2012
- Hits: 1050 views
- Hits: How would men's deeds be judged after resurrection? What does the Quran say in this regard?
Those who follow the path of truth know that when we speak of a world which is utterly different from the present one, and the means that will be applied there to judge men's deeds with respect to good and evil, it should not be thought that men will be faced with some prosecutor who carefully weighs their deeds in some huge scale, and that then they are given the opportunity to defend themselves before the court issues its verdict for implementation by the executive branch. The concept of the scale or the balance presented in the Quran is infinitely more comprehensive than what is implied by this picture. Thus, God says: "He raised the sky and set up the balance" (55:7). "At the time of resurrection, We shall set up the scales of justice, and none will be wronged on that day. Everyone will be requited in accordance with his deeds. We shall take into reckoning the smallest of deeds, even if it be no greater than a mustard grain, for it is We Who shall call them to account" (21:47). "The weighing [of deeds] on that Day is a truth. As for those whose deeds weigh heavy in the scales, it is they who are the felicitous. As for those whose deeds weigh light in the scales, it is they who have ruined their souls because they used to reject Our messages (lit. "wrong Our signs")" (7:8-9). These verses point out that those who have squandered the capital of their existence will suffer eternal and irredeemable loss, for the loss that results in the corruption of the very essence of man's being is the greatest of all losses and no compensation can be made for it. It should be remembered that we cannot always apply the criteria with which we are familiar to understand the words of the Quran; we must seek to understand the concepts that underlie them and the results to which they give rise. Moreover, the words to which we have recourse in attempting to explain matters are inevitably defective.